JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険, Jojo no Kimyō na Bōken) is a 1999 fighting game developed by Capcom based on author Hirohiko Araki's famous manga series of the same name. The story takes place during the third story arc of the comics,Stardust Crusaders. It was originally released in the arcade in 1998 on the CPS-3 arcade system; this version was known outside of Japan as JoJo's Venture. An updated version of the game was released in 1999 as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future, becoming the sixth and last game released for the CPS-3 board (the second-to-last being the third revision of Street Fighter III: Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, released only a few months earlier). Console ports for the Playstation and Dreamcast were also released that year (minus the subtitle). A high-definition version of the game was released on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in August 2012, before being removed from both platforms in September 2014. Characters Gameplay The game combines Capcom's trademark anime-inspired graphics, as seen in the Darkstalkers series, with the colorful characters and events of Hirohiko Araki's creation, resulting in a highly stylized and detailed visual style. It also features many of the gameplay mechanics seen on previous Capcom fighting games, such as the use of power gauges for super moves, as well as a brand new Stand Mode. In the game's storyline (based on the third story arc of the manga), a Stand is a manifestation of the psyche, or a spirit, that accompanies each character and can be summoned or dismissed at will by the player, resulting in variations on the character's move list and abilities. Despite their power, Stands hold one drawback; any damage received by the Stand is transmitted to its user. Hirohiko Araki served as a consultant for the game and created exclusive pieces of artwork for its promotion and packaging; most notably, he developed from scratch a new character design for Midler, since Capcom was interested in using her in the game and she had been only vaguely shown in the original manga. Stand Mode Fighting with the "Stand Mode" on enhances both the character's offensive and defensive abilities; these improvements heavily depend of the character and Stand, but some common ones are for example double jumping, absorbing residual damage when blocking special attacks, powered-up special moves, etc. Most of the game's specific mechanics derive from the introduced Stand Mode. For example, attacking the physical manifestation of the enemy's stand will cause damage on both of them; this is a crucial strategic element, since many of the special moves and attacks send the Stand away from the user, adding the difficulty of protecting both of them at the same time. On top of the usual health bar and power gauge, there is a third meter, the "Stand Gauge", which decreases when the Stand is damaged and refills when the Stand Mode is switched off; if this gauge is depleted, a "Stand Break" is caused, and the character is paralyzed and wide open to any attack for an instant. Other features of the Stand Mode include summoning the Stand with an instant attack, the possibility of "programming" attack patterns on the fly and unleashing them at will, "releasing" the Stand and controlling it directly, and so forth. Some characters lack an "active" Stand, though; some of these "passive" Stand users introduce even more complex and specific mechanics into the game, such as Hol Horse's gun-Stand or Mariah's magnetic Stand. The Stands create strong differences between the characters, and force often radically different offensive approaches for each one; this "character-dependent gameplay" style would be present in posterior fighting games, such as the latter entries of the Guilty Gear series, which, interestingly enough, also includes many Rock and pop music references as well. Bonus Stages and Special Battles Across the game and if certain conditions are met, the player will have to clear special stages and face secret opponents in which special rules apply and which reenact certain chapters of the manga that were less "translatable" as regular combats. Among these special events a rea sidescrolling sequence in which the player has to overcome a water Stand and find its user N'Doul, or a special battle against Death 13. They also include other special matches as well, but those were exclusive for the PlayStation version via the Super Story mode such as Gray Fly, Enya Geil, Captain Tennille Imposter (in an interactive movie), Forever (in an interactive action sequence), Nena (interactive movie scene), ZZ (interactive movie scene), Steely Dan (side scrolling shooter), Arabia Fats (interactive mini game),Cameo,Daniel.J.D'arby (interactive mini game), Terence. D'arby (interactive movie scene) and Kenny G (interactive mini game). Blazing Fists Match One of the less known features of the game, but also one of the most impressive, it's caused when two certain opposing special moves are perfomed by certain characters at the very same time collide; the player/s are then prompted to quickly bash the attack buttons to win a "Blazing Fists" duel and decide who will receive the damage, a feature first seen in Samurai Shodown. Alessi Mode When Alessi uses Sethan to de-age the characters some of them turn into minor characters instead of their child forms. In the Dreamcast version there's Alessi Mode, which allows these de-aged characters to be played in a set of rules (both players fighting as the kid counterparts for the whole round or the characters turning into children during a Stand crash). This mode is unlocked by finishing Challenge mode with Alessi. * Kid forms (Jotaro, Kakyoin, Avdol, Polnareff, Devo, Middler, Pet shop, Vanilla Ice, Alessi) * Young Joseph (Joseph) * Teenage Joseph (Young Joseph) * Iggy's older design (Iggy) * Disguised Fat Woman (Rubber Soul) * Boingo (Hol Horse paired with Boingo) * Unnamed boy possessed by Anubis (Chaka, Black Polnareff) * Unnamed cow possessed by Anubis (Khan) * Unnamed boy with Hanged Man in his eyes (Hol Horse paired with J.Geil) * Unnamed old woman from Mariah's fight (Mariah) * Nukesaku (DIO) * Wang Chan (Shadow Dio) Name Chances The JoJo franchise features dozens of musical references (character names or Stand names are the most common way) due to Hirohiko Araki's love for western music, so Capcom decided to change some of this names to avoid copyright issues. Credits Arcade Version Staff Venture Planner: Shinichiro Obata, Yo CC Fukuda, Mamoru Ohashi Programmer: Tomohiro Ueno, Batayon, Hideo Sako (Hdo), T・Kimoto (Dress), Y・Inada (Ine), Oh!Ya!, Yoji "GM009p" Mikami Scroll Design: Nakatsuka, Kisabon, Chiezou Morisaki, Inoyan, Kanno, Yamasan, Kajita Object Design: Ball Boy, Q, Kaname, Tsuyoshi, Fujii & Peliko, AHOGEN hiroshi, Narancia, Tatsuya Oshima, Yoshihiro Goda, Shiniya M, Mizuho, M・Katagiri Design Works: Ukabin, Da・Uchi, Sakomizu Music Compose: Yuko Takehara, Setsuo Yamamoto Sound Design: Moe・T (Migya), E・Masayuki (Up・Tail) Voice Actor: Hisao Egawa, Tohru Ohkawa, Yoshitada Ohtsuka, Yuji Kishi, Tsutomu Tareki, Isshin Chiba, Takashi Nagasako, Miki Nagasawa, Mitsuaki Madono, Kiyoyuki Yanada Special Thanks: Takuya Shiraiwa, Maki Yoshiura, Erik Suzuki, Dan Okada, Chris Tang, Manatee, Eiichiro Sasaki, Yuji Matsumoto, Wataru Kondo Producer: Kouji Nakajima General Producer: Noritaka Funamizu Executive Producer: Yoshiki Okamoto And Capcom All Staff Arcade Version Staff Adventure Planner: Shinichiro Obata, Yo JB Fukuda, Mamoru Ohashi, Koji Shimizu Programmer: Tomohiro Ueno, Batayon, Hideo Sako (Hdo), T・Kimoto (Dress), Y・Inada (Ine), Oh!Ya!, Yoji "BD1" Mikami Scroll Design: Nakatsuka, Kisabon, Chie Morisaki, Inoyan, Kanno, Yamasan, Masanori Kajita, Takashi Fujiwara Object Design: Ball Boy, Q, Kaname, Tsuyoshi, Fujii & Peliko, AHOGEN hiroshi, Narancia, Tatsuya Oshima, Yoshihiro Goda, Shiniya M, Mizuho, M・Katagiri, Nishimura M, Tomohiko Ohsumi Design Works: Ukabin, Da・Uchi, Sakomizu Music Compose: Yuko Takehara, Setsuo Yamamoto Sound Design: Moe・T, Masayuki Endo Voice Actor: Hisao Egawa, Tohru Ohkawa, Yoshitada Ohtsuka, Yuji Kishi, Tsutomu Tareki, Isshin Chiba, Takashi Nagasako, Miki Nagasawa, Mitsuaki Madono, Kiyoyuki Yanada, Show Hayami, Yoshito Yasuhara, S・Obata Special Thanks: Takuya Shiraiwa, Maki Yoshiura, Erik Suzuki, Dan Okada, Chris Tang, Manatee, Eiichiro Sasaki, Yuji Matsumoto, Wataru Kondo Producer: Kouji Nakajima General Producer: Noritaka Funamizu Executive Producer: Yoshiki Okamoto And Capcom All Staff Presented by: Capcom PSX Version Staff Venture Planner: Shinichiro Obata, Yo HG Fukuda, Mamoru Ohashi, Koji Shimizu, Nuki.R.Jyo, Oni-Suzuki, Hideaki Itsuno Programmer: Tomohiro Ueno, Batayon, Hideo Sako (Hdo), T.Kimoto (Dress), M&Y.Inada (Ine), Oh!Ya!, Yoji Mikami, Yuzoh Tsunazaki, T.Furuko, M.Nakanowatari, H.M.D., Motsu, Teruaki Hirokado, Kaw.Tld Scroll Design: Nakatsuka, Inoyan, Kisabon, Chie Morisaki, Masanori Kajita, Takashi Fujiwara, Kenji Kushiro, Kanno Object Design: Ball Boy, Q, Kaname, Tsuyoshi, Fujii & Peliko, Hiroshi Ahogen, Narancha, Tatsuya Oshima, Yoshihiro Goda, Shiniya M, Mizuho, M.Katagiri, Nishimura M, Tomohiko Ohsumi, Chunzenji, Koji Nijiniji Design Works: Ukabin, Da.Uchi, Sakomizu, Jiwasaki Music Composer: Yuko Takehara, Setsuo Yamamoto Sound Designer: Moe.T, Masayuki Endo, Satoshi Ise Adventure's Music Composer: Satoshi Ise, Masayuki Endo, Yoshiki Sandou Recording Engineer: Kazuya Takimoto Voice Actor: Naoko Ishii, Hisao Egawa, Tohru Ohkawa, Yoshitada Ohtsuka, Yuji Kishi, Tsutomu Tareki, Sanae Takagi, Wataru Takagi, Junko Takeuchi, Eiji Takemoto, Isshin Chiba, Hidetoshi Nakamura, Takashi Nagasako, Miki Nagasawa, Show Hayami, Mitsuaki Madono, Kiyoyuki Yanada, Yoshito Yasuhara Special Thanks: Takuya Shiraiwa, Manatee, Maki Yoshiura, Erik Suzuki, Dan Okada, Chris Tang, Manatee, Eiichiro Sasaki, Yuji Matsumoto, Wataru Kondo, Yoshirou Okamoto, Chikahiro Kawanishi, Yoshihiro Tomita, Yuki Nitanda, Nosetate, Tatsuya Hamada, Akinori Murata, Ayanagi Motoyama, Tomoyuki Yokota, Yasushi Kuroe, Masayasu Mukai, Hiroki Matsumoto, K.Nouchi, Meijin, Ysk Producer: Kouji Nakajima General Producer: Noritaka Funamizu Executive Producer: Yoshiki Okamoto And Capcom All Staff Presented by: Capcom Legacy This game was among the first pieces of JoJo-related media released in North America, exposing the characters to many western players for the first time.It is likely that this exposure, along with the part 3 OVA,is what made Jotaro more recognizable than the other JoJos and why DIO is the most popular antagonist, and perhaps the reason why the English version of All-Star Battle had Jotaro,Star Platinum and Dio in its cover art,as opposed to all the protagonists faces reflecting on jotaro in the Japanese cover art. The game also has become a cult classic among fighting game enthusiasts(mostly due to the creative ideas such as the "stand mode" and the over-the-top nature of the game itself) and is well liked among fans of the original series due to his faithfulness to the source material as well as some hidden eater eggs(fanservice). See Also *''Le Bizzarre Avventure di GioGio: Vento Aureo'' Gallery Image:JoJoJotaro.png|''Jotaro'' Image:JoJoJoseph.png|''Joseph'' Image:JoJoYoungJoseph.png|''Young Joseph'' Image:JoJoAvdol.png|''Avdol'' Image:JoJoKakyoin.png|''Kakyoin'' Image:JoJoPolnareff.png|''Polnareff'' Image:JoJoIggy.png|''Iggy'' Image:JoJoAlessy.png|''Alessi'' Image:JoJoDBo.png|''D'Bo'' Image:JoJoChaca.png|''Chaka'' Image:JoJoMidler.png|''Midler'' Image:JoJoIced.png|''Iced'' Image:JoJoDio.png|''Dio'' Image:ShadowDio.png|''Shadow Dio'' Image:JoJoHolHorse.png|''Hol Horse'' and Boingo Image:JoJoMahrahia.png|''Mariah'' Image:JoJoPetshop.png|''Petshop'' Image:BlackPolnareff.png|''Black Polnareff'' Image:RubberSoul.png|''Rubber Soul'' Image:Khan.png|''Khan'' Box Art Image:JoJoJapanDC.png|''Japan'' Dreamcast Image:JoJoJapanPS.png|''Japan'' PS Image:JoJoCoverScan.png|''U.S.'' Image:JoJo_Europe.png|''Europe'' Merchandise and Advertisement Image:JoJoManga.png|Stardust Crusaders Manga Volume 1 Image:JoJoManga2.png|Stardust Crusaders Manga Volume 2 Image:JoJoManga3.png|Stardust Crusaders Manga Volume 3 Image:JoJoManga4.png|Stardust Crusaders Manga Volume 4 Image:JoJoSecretFile.png|''Arcade Flyer'' Secret File External Links *Wikipedia article *''JoJo's Bizarre Adventure'' wikia article Category:Games Category:Fighting Games Category:Arcade Games Category:Licensed Games Category:Comics-based Games Category:Dreamcast Games Category:PlayStation Games Category:Fantasy Games